I suck at titles
by junodog
Summary: Another crossover... Fullmetal Alchemist and Kingdom Hearts... fairly selfexplanatory, and as always, mangabased.
1. Chapter 1

Yah, theez eez ze secoond fanfeecteeoon that I wrote. Eet eez old und I haff somevhat geeveen oop on eet. Eet eez short as vell.

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The Elric brothers were lost. They had no idea where they were. All they knew is that they had ended up in this strange town, without a clue as to how or why they had arrived.

After walking around for a while, they entered a shop. Inside they found a man with a strange look on his face. He greeted the boys as they walked up to the counter. "Hi there. New to Traverse Town?"

"Traverse Town?" Ed asked, looking up at his brother.

"I'll take that look of confusion on your faces as a yes. Or, I guess just on your face, little boy. I can't see the… What's wrong with him?" the man asked, seeing the look of pure loathing on Ed's face, and backing away.

"I'm… not… little!!"

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean any offense there, kid."

"KID?!? I'M FREAKING FIFTEEN YEARS OLD, I'M NOT A KID!!!!"

"No way, you're fifteen?"

"YES I'M FIFTEEN!! HOW OLD DID YOU THINK I AM?"

"Jeez, I'm sorry, okay? Calm down, there, umm… what's your name?"

"I'm Edward Elric, and this is my _younger_ brother Alphonse. Now what's your name and where the hell are we?"

" My name is Cid, and this place is called Traverse Town. It's a place where people go when their worlds have been taken by the heartless."

"Heartless?"

"Yeah. Before you ended up here, did you see any strange creatures wandering around that looked like this?" The man held up a picture of a little black thing, and Ed shook his head.

"No, we didn't see anything like that. We just were making our way through a tunnel, and then we came out into this place. We turned around to see the tunnel again, but there was nothing behind us but a wall."

"Weird. Well, I don't know what to tell you. If you look around, you might get to see more people from your world."

"Uh, okay…"

"Let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you," Al said as they walked outside.

Ed crossed his arms as he looked around. He didn't want to be there, but he decided that it would be a good idea to walk around, and see if they could find a clue as to how to get back to their world. He talked with his brother as they walked.

"I wonder if we really are in a different world," Al said.

"Could be. I don't really know, though. I'd like to know what that man meant by 'Heartless,' though."

"The way he said it, it didn't sound like they're very good creatures."

"Oh well, let's keep going. I'm sure…" Ed trailed off, and looked at something disturbing. A huge monster, vaguely resembling the one Ed and Al had seen a picture of in Cid's shop, was fighting against three people. One of them was a boy, about Ed's age, and the other two were so strange-looking that Ed wasn't quite sure they were really there. One was a duck, and Ed didn't bother to try and figure out what the other one was.

The three looked like they needed help. Signaling to his brother, Ed ran to fight against the monster. He clapped his hands together, and placed them on the ground, sending spikes into the monster and destroying it.

--------------

Sora was very grateful. He had been fighting one of the Heartless with Donald and Goofy, and they were having a lot of trouble. Then, out of nowhere, spikes had flown out of the ground and killed the Heartless. He looked around, trying to figure out who was responsible for the spikes, and saw a small boy running towards them, followed by a suit of armor.

"Are you all right?" the boy asked, stopping when he got close enough.

"Yeah, thanks," Sora replied. "Who are you?"

"Oh, just a couple of alchemists."

"Alchemists?"

"Yeah."

"What's an alchemist?"

"What?"

"I said, what's an alchemist?"

"You mean, you don't know?"

"No, is it something from your world?"

"Yeah, it is."

The armor spoke up. Sora was surprised by the childish voice. "An alchemist is somebody who practices alchemy."

"And what's alchemy?"

"You just saw an example of it. You take the substances around you, deconstruct them, and reconstruct them into something else."

"Wow!" Sora exclaimed. "How do you learn it?"

"By studying. A lot. And it's really complicated."

"I wanna learn…" Sora whined.

Donald spoke up, startling the boy. "Come on, Sora, we have to go. There could be more Heartless around."

"Wait, you mean that thing is a Heartless?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, haven't you seen them before?" Goofy asked.

"No, we just got here. That's the first one we've seen."

"What about on your world?"

"No, there weren't any on our world either," the armor said.

"That's weird, cuz usually the Heartless appear before a world disappears," Sora said.

"What do you mean, disappear? What the hell is going on?" the boy said.

Donald looked around. "Come on, we should go someplace safe, since you don't have a clue about anything."

The five of them walked back to Cid's shop, with the armor trying to keep the boy from attacking Donald.

-------------------

Ed finally understood what was going on. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had explained it to them in great detail. They were sitting in Cid's shop, one of the safe places in the town. Now he wanted to know something else.

"So how exactly did we end up here?"

"Well, if your world wasn't destroyed, then I don't know," said Donald.

"But how are we supposed to get back?"

"Once again, I don't know. You're gonna have to find a way by yourselves."

"Hey, that's pretty harsh, Donald. Maybe we could keep an eye out for it next time we go out," Sora replied.

"Really? You can find it?" Ed asked, getting excited.

"Yeah, probably," Sora said.

"Hold on a minute. We have more important things to worry about than finding their world," Donald pointed out.

"But if there aren't Heartless on their world, we can seal the keyhole more easily. Besides, I'm really interested in alchemy now, aren't you?" Sora asked.

"Nope."

"But it saved our lives!"

"We could have beat it without their help."

"But it would have been a lot harder."

"It would have been good practice for you," Donald finished, but he reluctantly agreed to try to find it.

-----------------

Sora kept his eyes out for a new world. He really wanted to find Ed and Al's world, because he wanted to learn alchemy. They didn't have luck with it for a while. Then, after going to a few different worlds and sealing the keyholes on those worlds, they went to a world that was strangely empty of Heartless.

They had ended up in a sparsely populated valley. Sora went out on his own, since Donald and Goofy would draw a bit too much attention, like Ed had said. He wandered around, trying to find some sign that would confirm that this was their world.

He noticed a graveyard, and decided to look around. One grave caught his attention: one for Trisha Elric. Remembering that Ed's last name was Elric, he wondered who Trisha was in relation to Ed, or if she was even related.

He looked around at the other graves, and saw two more that caught his attention. Ed had mentioned a girl named Winry Rockbell. He didn't see Winry's name, but there were two graves with the name Rockbell on them. They seemed to have been married, and they had died on the same day.

Deciding that he had enough proof, Sora walked back along the road to where Donald and Goofy were. On the way, he saw a building with a sign on it. The sign had the name Rockbell on it, so that was definitely enough proof for him.

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Ed waited impatiently for Sora to get back. He wanted to get to his own world. After several days of waiting, they returned. When Ed saw Sora walking up, he went directly to him.

"So?"

"I'm pretty sure we found it."

"Pretty sure?"

"Yeah, we ended up in a not-very-populated area, and I looked in the graveyard."

"Why would you look in a graveyard?"

"I don't know, it was interesting…"

"So, anyways…"

"I found some familiar names."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was a grave for Trisha Elric, and two for a couple named 'Rockbell,' do those names mean anything to you?"

Ed stood silently for a while. He didn't really want to think about it.

"Well?"

"Trisha Elric… is our mother. And the Rockbells, they're the parents of our best friend."

"Oh," Sora replied, seeming to feel bad to bring it up. Donald walked up to Ed, who was still not feeling too good about being the bad reminders of his past, and pulled on his face.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

"If you're going to come with us, then you can't be so sad."

"But now my face hurts!"

"Come on, it's time to go."

Ed walked behind Donald, fuming, as they made their way to the ship.

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Sora knew something was wrong by the way the ship was moving. He looked around at it, and saw that part of the wing was loose. They would have to land somewhere to fix it, but there was only one world nearby. They talked it over, and decided to land on the world, which happened to be Hercules's world. While the chipmunks got to work on the ship, Sora took Ed and Al over to meet Hercules and Phil.

Hercules wasn't present at the moment. Phil looked at the two brothers, not quite knowing what to say. Finally, he talked to Sora.

"So, do these two want to enter in the tournament?"

"Well, I told them about it, and they seemed interested."

"I'll have to see if it's worth letting them in. They don't look like much. I mean, the armor's intimidating and all, but the little one…"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO LITTLE HE DEFIES THE LAWS OF NATURE WITH BY SURVIVING THIS LONG?" Ed shouted, trying to attack the little whatever-it's-called-that-just-insulted-him, but being held back by Al.

"I'm calling you that. You probably can't even pass the simplest Hero test."

"And what's that?" Ed asked, breathing hard.

Phil walked him out into the arena. There was a strange-looking setup of barrels and walls. "If you can destroy all the barrels within the next minute-"

Ed clapped his hands together and made spikes fly through all the barrels. "Is that good?"

Phil stared in amazement. "What…"

"It's called alchemy," Ed said, unable to hide the smug look on his face.

"Well, let's see how you do without your alchemy. There's more to a Hero than just special abilities. You have to be well rounded. Hey, Sora, why don't you go up against this kid? One-on-one, no magic or alchemy."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the closest one to his size."

At this latest insult to his height, Ed went after the little creature, only to be stopped by Al once again. "DAMN IT! I'LL SHOW YOU, YOU SMUG LITTLE FREAK!" Once Ed calmed down a bit, he went to fight Sora.

------------------

The fight between Ed and Sora didn't last very long. Ed proved himself to be very good at unarmed combat, and beat the Keyblade-less Sora easily.

"Want to make another comment about me depending on alchemy?" Ed asked Phil.

"You really have an attitude problem, you know that?"

"You started it."

"That's still no excuse. Being good-natured is a big part of being a hero."

"Who ever said I wanted to be a hero? I just want to find a way to get my brother back to normal."

"Why? What's wrong with him?"

Ed, having seen a lot of strange things in the past few days, decided that an empty suit of armor wouldn't be too shocking for anybody to see, so he went over to his brother and pulled off his head. "He's missing something."

Everybody looked at Al in shock. Phil pointed at the empty suit of armor and said, "Your brother doesn't have a head?"

Al got his head back from his brother and replied, "No, I don't have a body at all. This armor's empty." At that, a loud meow was heard, and Ed gave his brother a suspicious look.

"Except for when you're hiding a cat in there."

"Um, yeah, right. But anyway…"

"Where'd that cat come from?"

"Well, I found it a few days ago, back before we left East City…"

"How has it been able to LIVE?"

"I take care of it at night."

"If you two are finished arguing, would you mind telling us why your brother is an empty suit of armor?" Phil asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Oh, right," Ed said. "Well, a few years ago, we tried to bring our mother back to life with alchemy."

"But what does that have to do with your brother being a suit of armor?" Sora asked.

"Everything. When we transmuted her, Al lost his body," Ed said, taking off his coat, "and I lost my left leg and right arm."

"You mean, it didn't work? How can that be?" Sora asked.

"Alchemy has its limits, like just about everything else. It's impossible to bring somebody back to life."

"So, your mother…"

"What we made wasn't exactly human. It died right after we made it."

"But how are you going to get his body back?"

"That's the tricky part. We don't really know how yet."

"Sounds like you're stuck then."

"Yeah, I know," Ed said, then added "But that's why I became a dog of the military, so I could find a way. Right now getting Al's body back is more important than my pride."

"Spoken like a true hero," came a voice from behind them. Ed turned around, and saw a man who was very big, muscular, and stupid looking. Ed's first impression was that somebody had tried to draw a cartoon character handsomely, but had failed horribly.

"Oh, Herc, you're back," Phil said, walking over. "How was your trip?"

"It was fine. Who are these two?"

Ed walked up to the man. "I'm Edward Elric, and this is my _younger_ brother Alphonse."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Hercules. Are you here for the tournament?"

"Yes," Sora said, before Ed could say anything.

"Oh, good, it'll be interesting to see that arm in action."

"What, you mean this arm? What's so interesting about it?" Ed asked.

"Well, it's made of metal. I haven't really seen that before," Hercules replied.

"Well, it's pretty common where I'm from to have metal replacement limbs."

"Replacement?"

"Yeah, I lost my arm and leg when I was eleven," Ed said.

"Eleven? That's pretty young," Hercules said, looking somewhat surprised. "But it's nice that you can just replace it with something strong."

"I didn't exactly 'just replace it.' The process of getting it installed and also getting to the point where I could move freely took a year."

"A year?"

"Yeah, and I went to the point of coughing up blood. Usually it takes three years to do it."

Everybody was looking at him, except for Al, who was playing with the cat. After a while, the quiet staring started to bother Ed. "What?"

"You spent a year coughing up blood just so you could get a working arm?" Sora asked.

"Arm and leg, and yes, automail surgery is very long and painful. I mean, it's attached to your nerves. It'll even make a grown man cry out."

"And you did all that as a kid?" asked Goofy.

"Yeah."

"Now that's what I call strong. I'm sorry I ever underestimated ya, kid," Phil said.

"I'm not a kid."

"Sure ya are. Isn't a good thing? I mean, you still have a few years to grow, so doesn't that make you happy?"

"Well, I'm gonna have to grow a lot in the next three years, then."

"Three years?"

"Yeah, I'm fifteen."

"Well, other than your height, you have the look of a hero," Hercules said, trying to change the subject.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"Well, your face for one. You have a very determined look in your eyes."

"Yeah, and the color of your eyes, too, and your hair," Phil added.

"And the braid, too."

"And the outfit. Kid, you've got a good sense of style. All you need to do is grow like a foot and you'll look like a real hero."

"I'm not going for looks, and I'm not trying to be a hero! All I want is to get our bodies back to normal so I can get out of the military before I have to go fight in a war."

"Is there a chance of that happening?"

"Yeah, there's a very good chance. My country has been at war since before I was born."

"That's terrible," Sora said.

"And what country are you from?" Hercules asked.

Ed didn't know what to do. He had been warned by Donald not to say anything that would show that he was from another world. "I-it's one that's very far away from here. I don't really want to go into detail."

"Oh, okay."

Ed did very well in the tournament, and luckily he wasn't forbidden to use alchemy. He even came close to beating Hercules, but something happened during their match, and it was considered a tie after Hercules ran off to figure out what the problem was.

Once the tournament was over, they went back to the ship. It was completely repaired. They boarded it, and headed out towards Ed's world once more.


	2. Chapter 2

I thought some people might appreciate an update, since it's been about two months since I put the first chapter out… XD

In the middle of the trip, Sora and Donald got into a fierce argument. It caused them to stop paying attention to where they were going, and they ended up crashing into another world, once again not the right one.

All around them was desert. They got out of the ship, and Ed went with Sora and Goofy to see where they were. They hadn't gotten very far when Ed tripped on something hard. He looked to see what it was, and found a rock. It wasn't very interesting, and Ed threw it as far as he could.

It went over a dune, and after it was lost from sight, they heard a thunk and a voice cry out in pain. They went over to see who it was that had cried out, and found a young man rubbing his head, with a lamp in his other hand and a monkey on his shoulder.

"Oh, sorry," Ed said. "I didn't know you were there."

"Oh, no, that's fine. It's not like this is a populated area. I'm surprised that there's anybody else around."

"So, where exactly are we?" Sora asked.

"You don't know?"

"No, not really."

"We're only a couple of miles away from Agrabah."

"Aaaaannnnddddd…… is that where you live?"

"Yes. You're not from around here, are you?"

"Um, no, we came from very far away…"

"Oh, I see. Well, come on, let's get back to Agrabah. It's not too good to stay out here, especially since those things came…"

"What things?" Ed asked.

"Well, these strange creatures have been appearing lately, and they've been wreaking havoc in the town. Come on, it's not too far."

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Ed thought it was way too hot to be crossing the desert on foot. Every time his arm came too close to his body, he felt the heat of the metal. It was starting to get very awkward, since Aladdin didn't know about his arm, and seemed to wonder what was wrong with Ed's brain.

Finally, Ed got sick of trying to deal with his arm, and stopped. "I've had enough of this," he said, and started rummaging around in his suitcase. He found a long length of cloth, took off his coat, and began wrapping his arm with it, so that he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally burning himself with hot metal.

Aladdin watched Ed, not quite knowing what to say about his arm. "How did you get a metal arm?"

Ed looked at him and said, "Let's just say it's a replacement."

"But it's metal. How can you move it?"

"Magic," Ed said, not wanting to go into detail.

"You're magic? Then why don't you just cast a spell on your arm to keep it from burning you?"

"Because that'd take too much effort."

"Oh."

---------------

During the journey, they found out what was in the lamp. Ed had been curious, because Aladdin seemed to be a little obsessive over it. Finally, Aladdin rubbed the side of it, and a blue genie came out. He made a big deal of introducing himself, and he amused Ed greatly.

The Genie noticed Ed's wrapped-up arm, and the following conversation between Ed and Genie ensued.

"You know, I could fix your arm."

"It doesn't need to be fixed."

"Then why is it wrapped up?"

"Because it's made of metal and I don't want to burn myself."

"Why is your arm made of metal?"

"Because I lost my flesh-and-blood arm a few years ago."

"How'd you lose it?"

"Long story, but it was pretty much taken away. It probably still exists."

"I could get it back for you."

"No thanks, I'd rather do that myself."

"Why's that?"

"Because you'd probably mess it up. No offense."

"Well, then, I could make you taller."

"But then my arm and leg wouldn't fit me."

"I could make them grow too."

"How could you if you don't know where they are?"

"Hello, I'm _magic_."

"As tempting as that is, it would be too suspicious if I went back home and had grown several inches in the course of a couple weeks."

"And you don't want people to be suspicious?"

"Not really."

"Well, don't say I didn't offer to help."

"I won't."

Note: Ed doesn't seem to believe that Genie really has magical powers, or he's too stubborn to admit it.

---------------

When they arrived, they were immediately attacked by Heartless. Ed held his own pretty well, using alchemy to defend himself and the others. Since Sora didn't have to worry about being attacked from behind, he could fight more easily, and they soon made it to the center of the town.

In the center, there was a menacing, creepy, ugly man holding a girl captive. Aladdin seemed to recognize her, because Sora saw a look of sheer rage on his face. Luckily, he seemed to have enough sense to stay still, because Sora was pretty sure that the man was waiting for an excuse to kill Aladdin.

"Who are you?" Ed asked, obviously not wanting to deal with this. "And what the hell are you doing?"

The man smiled. This made him look even creepier. "I am Jafar, and I am not going to tell you my plans."

"Why not?" Ed asked, clearly not understanding that they were in deep trouble. They were surrounded by Heartless, and Jafar also had a hostage.

"Because I don't want you to know, little boy."

Ed became angry at this reference to his height, and tried to attack Jafar. He didn't get too far, because Jafar had the advantage of an army of Heartless guarding him. The Heartless all tackled him, leaving Ed lying on the ground, unable to move, glaring at Jafar.

Jafar looked down at Ed (imagine that, somebody looking _down_ at Ed) with disdain. Ed's coat sleeve had shifted, and his arm, still wrapped up like it was injured, was showing. Jafar glanced at it with interest, and then disappeared, along with the girl, leaving them to deal with the Heartless.

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"Who was that?" Ed asked, as soon as they were done fighting the Heartless.

"Who, the man or the girl?" Aladdin replied.

"The girl. It seemed like you know her."

"Her name's Jasmine. She's a princess."

"I wonder what that guy's up to," Sora said.

"Whatever it is, I doubt it's for the good of the people. Where would we find him?" Ed asked Aladdin.

"I think I know where to go. I'll have Genie take us there." Aladdin reached into his pocket to find the lamp, but it was gone. He felt frantically for it, but to no avail. "It's gone! I think Jafar must have had that bird take it."

"Is there another way we can get there?"

"Yes, I have a magic carpet up in my house. Come on."

----------------

Ed looked around at Aladdin's "house." It wasn't much, and he realized that Aladdin must not have been too lucky in life. After a while, they set out on the magic carpet, Ed not quite believing what was happening. They flew a long way across the desert, finally stopping at what looked like a tiger's head.

They walked inside through the mouth, and looked around. There were more Heartless here than there had been in the town, so Ed thought that they were on the right track. They continued down into the depths of the cave, fighting against the Heartless all the way.

After a while, they made it into a large, well-lit cavern. Jafar was standing at the opposite end, staring at something. Genie was right next to him, not looking happy at all. Ed guessed he didn't like his new master at all, and he could see why. Jafar was looking at a keyhole.

When he noticed them standing there, Jafar turned around. He still looked menacing and ugly, but there was also a smile on his face. Ed didn't like it. Even when a fight broke out, all Ed could think of was Mr. Ugly's ugly smile.

It didn't help that Genie was fighting on Jafar's side. He kept attacking them halfheartedly, and since he didn't want to be on Jafar's side, the attacks were spaced far apart and predictable. The only real threat was Jafar himself.

After a while, Ed managed to get decently close to Jafar. He tried to use his close-range fighting abilities, but Jafar kept going just out of reach. Ed was about to land a punch when a halfhearted attack from Genie knocked him against the wall. He sat there for a minute, waiting for the pain to subside. Once it did, he looked up and saw Jafar standing in front of him, with an evil grin on his face.

"You're not much of a threat, boy," he said, and aimed the end of his staff for Ed's arm, obviously assuming that it was badly injured. There was an earsplitting shatter once the staff met the metal of Ed's arm, and the force of the blow threw Jafar back. Jafar's staff had broken on Ed's arm, but not before it had snapped his forearm almost in half. The others were able to completely disarm Jafar after this.

---------------

After they beat him, Jafar, who still had control of the lamp, made his third wish: to become a powerful genie himself. Ed, Goofy, and Aladdin fought the newly-geniefied Jafar while Sora tried to get the lamp away from Iago. After Sora succeeded in retrieving the lamp, he called Jafar back, and they went back to seal the keyhole.

Jasmine had disappeared. They had left her when they had gone to fight Jafar, and she wasn't there anymore, which was strange, since there was no way she could have gotten out of the room.

Sora assumed that she had been taken to a different world, and said so, which wasn't a very good idea, considering that Donald had spoken so often about meddling in other worlds. Now it was about time to leave, since lava was starting to flow, and they all got onto the magic carpet. Goofy fell off, and Aladdin had to use his second wish to save him.

Once they were safely out, Aladdin begged to be taken with them in order to find Jasmine. He understood, though, when Sora explained why they couldn't. He proceeded to free Genie, who offered his help in finding Jasmine. Sora, Ed, and Goofy returned to the Gummi ship, hoping that they would be able to find Jasmine, and also return Ed and Al to their own world.

By the time they finally got to Amestris, the five of them had ended up stopping in other various worlds, and Ed's automail was in very bad shape (Jafar's staff had only broken the outer shell of it… or something). They would have to go to Resembool. Donald and Goofy resigned themselves to staying on the ship, not wanting to cause a disturbance in this world.

--------------

Ed, Al, and Sora walked down the road to Winry's house. Ed wasn't looking forward to seeing her, mostly because he knew what would happen when she found out what he had done to his automail. Sora noticed the look on Ed's face and asked what was wrong.

"Oh, nothing's wrong, I just don't really want to have to deal with this," Ed said.

"Why not?"

"Because if I have to take my arm off, it'll be really painful when it's put back on."

"Oh, I get it."

They arrived at the Rockbell home just as Winry was about to leave. She was very startled by Ed's arrival.

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here, Winry? I'm having a slight problem."

"What is it?"

Ed pulled off his coat and pointed at his broken arm. Winry's eyes widened at the sight of the damage, and she pulled a wrench out of nowhere. With it she sent Ed flying. "Why did you break it, you idiot?"

"Hey, I didn't mean to, it just sorta happened…"

"DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH EFFORT I PUT INTO MAKING THAT?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you slaved away trying to make this, and I'm a horrible person for breaking it, but can you just fix it?"

"Why, are you in a hurry?"

"Yes."

"All right, but it'll be expensive," Winry said, pulling Ed towards the house. As they approached the door, it was opened by Pinako, who seemed surprised but pleased to see the brothers. "Well, look who it is. It's nice to see you again."

"Hi, grandma."

"What did you do to your arm?"

"Well…" Ed tried to explain what had happened without giving too much away. Once he had finished, Winry finally noticed Sora.

"Who's this?"

"Oh, that's Sora, he's helping me with something."

"Does it have to do with your bodies?"

"No, something else that's pretty important."

"And what would that be?"

"Why do you care?"

"I want to know what you've been up to that causes you to break my automail, but I guess you're never going to tell me." Ed winced as Winry pulled a little too hard on his arm.

-------------

Once the repairs were made, they set out for the train station. Ed figured that the best place to look for a keyhole was in Central, since it was the most populous place in the country. He also realized that the keyhole could be anywhere, and not necessarily in the country of Amestris, but he really hoped that it would be easy to find.

Sora had explained the necessity of sealing the keyholes to him, and they had run into a small group of Heartless on the way back to the ship, so Ed figured that this was the best time to find the keyhole, when the world wasn't yet swarming with Heartless.

On the train, Ed explained the basic situation of their world to Sora, who listened carefully. Once he was finished, Sora spoke up. "It's a good thing the Heartless have only just arrived. Your world seems to have enough troubles as it is."

"Huh? Oh, yeah… I grew up here, so I don't really notice how bad it is quite as much, but to somebody like you…"

"Yeah?"

"I just realized, I have no clue what your life was like before your world was destroyed."

"My world? Well, I grew up on an island, actually it was like a small group of islands (correct me if I'm wrong), and it was nice. I spent a lot of time exploring with my friends, Riku and Kairi. After a while, we decided that it would be fun to go and explore other worlds, so we started building a raft. That's when our world was taken over by Heartless."

"A raft?" Ed asked, trying not to laugh.

"Yes, a raft. Is there something funny about that?"

"That seems a little dangerous," Al said. "What if you got caught in a storm?"

"Well, we didn't really think about that."

"It seems like that would be one of the first things on your mind, that you can build something safe so that you don't die before you can see new worlds," Ed said. "Or are you not that interested in staying alive?"

Sora glared at Ed. "If you're saying we were stupid, why don't you just go ahead and say it?"

"Okay, you're stupid."

Sora glared at Ed for a while longer. "How much farther is it to Central or whatever?"

"It's a pretty long trip. You might as well make yourself comfortable."

"Great."

-----------------

Sora woke up to a gun pointed at his head. He didn't really know what was going on, so he sat still. He looked over at Ed and Al. Al was sitting quietly, but Ed was snoring away. Once the man with the gun seemed to realize that Sora wasn't much of a threat, he moved onto Ed. He poked Ed with the gun several times, trying to get Ed to wake up. Sora, who wanted to know what was going on, asked, "What's going on?"

The man with the gun, still trying to wake Ed up, replied, "We're holding this train hostage. You should be quiet if you want to live. Now, why doesn't this pipsqueak wake up?"

Ed woke up at the sound of the word "pipsqueak." He attacked the man, and Al managed to disarm the other man, in order to prevent an even bigger problem. Everybody else in the car stared at the two brothers, including Sora.

"Why did you have to do that?" Sora asked. "You probably just made everything worse."

"Oh, sure, blame me."

"I am blaming you. You shouldn't have done that."

"Oh, thanks a lot." Ed transmuted a rope, tied the two men together, and interrogated them as they woke up. From what they said, it seemed like they were working with the Heartless, and that they were going to Central to meet their leader. Ed tried to find out who the leader was, but neither of the men seemed to know. After finding out everything they could, they decided to fight the people. They also didn't have much of a choice now.

Ed went with Sora to clear out the cars in front, while Al cleared out the few in the back. Ed took care of the real people, while Sora used his Keyblade against the Heartless. After a while, they got to the front of the train. It was empty, except for three people, who were clearly the leaders of the little band that had taken over the train. Sora was surprised to see Riku. (Note: Sora and Riku have already had their dramatic reunion/fight by this point in time)

---------------

"What are you doing here, Riku?" Sora asked.

"I'm trying to help Kairi, unlike you."

"How is taking over a train helping Kairi?"

Riku was silent for a moment, then said, "It's none of your business. Now get out of here. You're in the way."

Ed looked at Riku. He didn't quite understand what was going on, but he knew one thing. Sora was right. Riku wasn't going about things the right way. He looked over at Sora, who nodded and pulled out the Keyblade.

Riku laughed. "You're going to fight me? You've never beaten me before, what makes you think you can now?"

Sora was silent. Ed spoke for him. "Even if he doesn't beat you, I will," he said, transmuting his arm into a blade. "You're an idiot for doing this."

"What do you know about what I'm doing?"

"You're trying to save your friend, right? Well, right now I have a brother who's in as bad of a situation as your friend is, only it's the exact opposite."

"The opposite?"

"He has his soul, but no body. The point is, I'm not going to make other people suffer just because my brother is suffering."

"You think your brother is suffering? Kairi's heart is lost! She has nothing!"

"You know what, you can go ahead and think that, and I won't argue with you. All I know is you're messing around in my world, and I don't like it. This country's messed up enough as it is." Ed was through talking, and he and Sora went at it. Ed managed to subdue them with his alchemy, and the three of them disappeared. Soon, the train pulled into Central station.

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Well, the good news is I finally got KH2, so I can continue writing this story and therefore think more about updates…


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